TIFF '24: Oscar submissions from Denmark & Bulgaria

by Cláudio Alves

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE may have benefited from a different title, different expectations.
Like last year, my 2024 TIFF journey was marked by many a Best International Film Oscar submission. I've already written about some of them, including contenders from Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Palestine, and Portugal. Now, as this protracted post-festival coverage reaches its end – got to move on to NYFF at some point – let's consider the official submissions from Denmark and Bulgaria. The Cannes-competing The Girl with the Needle from Magnus von Horn, and the TIFF-premiering Triumph by Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva dramatize shocking true stories that prove Lord Byron was right. Truth really is stranger than fiction…

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Cannes at Home: Day 7 – Long Live the New Flesh!

by Cláudio Alves

I can't wait to plunge into the enigmas of THE SHROUDS.

Another day, another lackluster reception to a highly anticipated Cannes title. Ali Abbasi's Donald Trump film, The Apprentice, seems neither thrilling nor especially deep, with various comparisons to Wikipedia entries throughout naysayer's reviews. At least, its cast got general praise, with highest honors to Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn. Then again, it did receive one of the festival's longest standing ovations yet, so make of that what you will. On a more somber note, David Cronenberg's The Shrouds is being described as the director's most transparent movie, laying bare the grief of an artist dealing with his wife's passing. In a recent interview, the Canadian master described cinema as a cemetery, and it seems his latest work follows that idea to literal ends.

For the Cannes at Home odyssey, let's examine two horrors from the directors' past - Abbasi's Shelley and Cronenberg's Videodrome, where a very different vision of death awaits…

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Denmark's Three Oscar Submission Finalists for 2023

by Nathaniel R

Mads Mikkelsen in "The Promised Land", a Danish Oscar submission finalist

We've shared this observation before but Germany and Denmark have (so far at least) been to the Oscars of the 21st century what France and Italy were to the 20th century. The two countries cannot be discounted in any upcoming Oscar race. Since 2000 Denmark has received 8 nominations and 2 wins (their grand total now being 14/4) and they've made the finals three additional times in that time span, too. Germany is Oscar's current favourite country scoring 9 nominations, 3 wins, and 5 additional finalists since 2000 (their all time stats are now 21/4). Germany has submitted the contemporary drama The Teacher's Lounge which premiered at Berlinale and will be at TIFF soon for the upcoming Oscar race. Now we know the three Danish finalists for the submission honor though their choice won't be announced until late September. They are...

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Reader's Choice: Babette's Feast (1987)

This weekend's topic, currently streaming on HBOMax and Criterion Channel, was chosen by readers. This article contains spoilers so if you've never seen the film, correct that first.

for such a delicious movie, the first shot of people and food isn't very appetizing!by Nathaniel R

How far does the "foodie" movie subgenre stretch back? It's difficult to tell from the internet alone, which tends to think movies of all genres began in the 1980s; online "best of all time" lists are of little use when you're curious about film history. We know at least that the subgenre was in full swing by the 1990s with arthouse hits such as Like Water for Chocolate, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Big Night arriving semi-annually. Was the watershed moment, at least for US moviegoers, bout a half a year stretch between the fall of 1987 and the spring of 1988? In that time the hilarious Japanese "ramen western" Tampopo (1985) was slowly collecting its fult following and Denmark's Babette's Feast was a hit at arthouse theaters and took home the Oscar.

Whether or not Babette's Feast was the first truly popular foodie title with movieogers, it was at least a grand appetizer or sensational first course for the now robust subgenre...

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'Babette's Feast' next Thursday!

Thank you for voting in the readers poll about what movie we should talk about next week (Thursday March 23rd). So please watch Babette's Feast (1987) before that day. It's only 102 minutes long which used to be a normal movie length but now will feel like a short film! The Oscar-winning foodie classic is currently streaming on both HBOMax and Criterion and is also available to rent on most platforms if you don't have those services.

Somehow I've never seen it despite being a) really into Scandinavian things b) obsessed with the Best International Feature Film category and c) fascinated that Denmark has become Hollywood's "favourite" country other than Germany in the past two decades (if this keeps up those two countries will be to the 21st century what Italy/France were to the Oscars of the 20th century)